January 9, 2017
Beijing — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s message to the newly established China Global Television Network sounds simple enough. It’s one he’s repeated over and over to state media during his nearly five years in power.
“Tell China’s story well,” he said in a congratulatory letter published by the broadcaster on New Year’s Eve, the day the organization launched.
But as China pushes to enhance its influence abroad, CGTN’s mission is anything but simple. Experts on Chinese media say the new network will be at the forefront of Beijing’s foreign propaganda offensive, one of President Xi’s top priorities as he seeks to expand his country’s international reach and burnish its global image.
The launch comes at an auspicious time for China, says Mareike Ohlberg, a research associate at the Mercator Institute for China Studies in Berlin who studies China’s global propaganda efforts. With liberal democracy facing a growing crisis across the West, she says the Chinese Communist Party see an opening to reshape global opinion in favor of its own political system and values.
“Right now there are lots of opportunities,” Ms. Ohlberg says. “The more people who agree that China’s model is better, the more secure the Communist Party can feel at home and also in its role internationally.”
CGTN isn’t an entirely new organization, but rather a rebranding of Central China Television’s international networks and digital presence. The broadcaster’s foreign language channels, video content, and digital media all fall under the new group.
Anne-Marie Brady, a global fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington who specializes in Chinese propaganda, says in an email that the network’s makeover signifies a “further upping the ante” of China’s external propaganda efforts. She explains that while China has successfully projected a positive image of its domestic economy to Western countries, it has long struggled to do the same for its political system.
Indeed, the most recent results from an ongoing global opinion poll by Pew Research Center found that 55 percent of respondents in the United States have an unfavorable view of the country, up from 39 percent in 2007. Many countries in Western Europe share similar views.
The launch of CGTN reflects a growing sophistication of the Communist Party’s Propaganda Department. It includes a new logo and a pair of new mobile apps for news and live broadcasts. CCTV’s accounts on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and Tumblr have all been rebranded as CGTN. Because the social media platforms are all blocked in China, they are all aimed at international audiences.
“The subtle name change reveals that China understands it needs to disguise the obvious links to the Chinese official media in order to make the message from China more attractive, and to lure in audiences who won’t know the source,” Ms. Brady says.
But achieving that level of separation will be difficult to achieve, says Yuen Ying Chan, founding director of the Journalism and Media Studies Program at the University of Hong Kong, especially after Xi told state-run media outlets to pledge absolute loyalty to the Communist Party last year.
“You want to manage the media, control the media, and then you want the global public to be attracted to it, to believe it,” she says about the Communist Party. “That’s an inherent contradiction. I don’t see how it can be done.”
Still, some experts warn that it would be wrong to dismiss China’s efforts in trying to influence public opinion in the West. In 2009, Beijing reportedly announced that it would invest 45 billion renminbi ($6.5 billion) to strengthen its international news coverage and help spread its message abroad. Backed by a large government bankroll, China’s media outlets have become more ambitious as they try to transform the Communist Party into a global voice.
“This is something that has really gained traction since Xi Jinping came to power,” says Ohlberg of the Mercator Institute. “This idea that China has an alternative to offer to so-called Western liberal democracy, and that it should push that more heavily.”
CGTN has channels in English, Arabic, French, Spanish, and Russian, and production centers in Washington and Nairobi. It also has nearly 43 million likes on Facebook – the most of any major broadcaster in the world – despite the social network being blocked in China since 2009. (CNN has 25.5 million likes and BBC News has 37 million.)
In addition to CGTN, the official Xinhua News Agency has expanded aggressively overseas in recent years. In 2011, it leased a giant billboard in New York’s Times Square that has, among other things, broadcast videos promoting China’s position on the South China Sea territorial dispute.
China has also made its mark on academic institutions. Some 500 Confucius Institutes have been set up on university campuses worldwide to spread Chinese language and culture, with plans in place to double the number to 1,000 by 2020.
And on Saturday, the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing opened a new research center charged with finding new ways to boost China’s voice in the international community.
China has a long way to go toward breaking the West’s dominance in the realm of international soft power. It ranked 28th in the world on the Soft Power 30 index for 2016 , sandwiched between Russia and the Czech Republic and well behind the United States and Great Britain, which ranked first and second respectively. The index was compiled by Portland Communications, a London-based public relations agency.
No one knows how successful China’s expanded propaganda campaign will be. But it has already raised concerns in Washington, if to a lesser extent than Russia’s increasingly sophisticated tactics. On Dec. 23, President Obama signed into law a “counter-propaganda” bill that was included in the National Defense Authorization Act for the 2017 fiscal year.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Rob Portman (R) of Ohio, said it was aimed at propaganda from « Russia, China, and other nations.  » The bill calls for the establishment of a center in the State Department to coordinate “counter-propaganda” efforts and creates a grant program for non-governmental organizations that are engaged in related work.
“Our enemies are using foreign propaganda and disinformation against us and our allies, and so far the US government has been asleep at the wheel,” Senator Portman said in a statement. “With this bill now law, we are finally signaling that enough is enough; the United States will no longer sit on the sidelines.”
China’s state-run media interpreted the bill in a different light. A commentary published Dec. 28 in People’s Daily, the main newspaper of the Communist Party, says the bill’s adoption “suggests that America’s message to the world is losing its appeal in the face of a much more fiercely competitive market place of ideas.”

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The US Trade Representative said in its annual report to Congress that continued dialogue with China over trade disputes, backed up by formal complaints in the World Trade Organization when necessary, have yielded results for US companies, although « significant trade distortions » remain.
China is now the second largest market for US goods exports, expanding 505 percent since joining the WTO in 2001, to $116 billion as of 2015, the report said.
Services exports reached $48 billion in 2015, an increase of 802 percent since 2001.
Since China joined the WTO, the United States has filed 20 WTO dispute cases against China, more than twice as many as any other WTO member.
Trump has taken a hardline with China, threatening to immediately impose 45 percent import tariffs on Chinese goods once he takes office, saying the world’s second biggest economy has stiffed the US through currency manipulation and illegal subsidies.
That antagonism has raised fears among US businesses that their exports to China will be threatened, especially since Beijing has signaled it will retaliate.
Strong support across America’s industrial « Rust Belt, » and frustration over lost jobs blamed on globalization, helped carry Trump to victory in the November election.
But the Obama administration has repeatedly touted engagement and enforcement as tools it has used successfully with China to prompt it to open its markets.
However, the USTR acknowledges that more progress is needed, saying the current leadership in Beijing has not followed through on pledges to open the economy further.
« Many of the problems that arise in the US-China trade and investment relationship can be traced to the Chinese government’s interventionist policies, » the USTR said.
Those practices, and the large role of state-owned enterprises in China’s economy, « continue to generate significant trade distortions that inevitably give rise to trade frictions. « 
The USTR said « if China is going to deal successfully with its increasing economic challenges at home, it must allow greater scope for market forces to operate, which requires altering the role of the state in planning the economy. « 
Major concerns remain about China’s protection of intellectual property rights, the country’s support for state-owned companies, subsidies, and lack of market access for agricultural goods, among others.

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In the latest sign of tensions between Taiwan and mainland China, a young pro-democracy activist and three legislators from Hong Kong received protection in Taiwan when their visit prompted demonstrations by pro-Beijing groups.
Two of the Hong Kong delegation, Joshua Wong and Nathan Law, were reportedly roughed up on their return home when they encountered more protesters who want Hong Kong and Taiwan to stand with China rather than pursue independence.
Police in Taipei had kept angry protesters away from Wong, the 20-year-old secretary general of Hong Kong’s minor party Demosisto, and three party lawmakers, while they visited over the weekend for a pair of forums. Taiwan’s 2-year-old New Power Party held the events to discuss advancing democracy.
The incidents raised questions in Taiwan about who organized the protests. A pro-China advocacy group in Taipei said it protested the events peacefully. Local media pointed to possible involvement by a mafia-style gang with China connections. Others wonder if disgruntled Communist officials in China were behind the opposition to Wong’s visit.
China claims sovereignty over Taiwan despite the island’s self-rule since the 1940s. Officials in Beijing have grown nervous over the past year because Taiwan’s new president, Tsai Ing-wen, and a majority in parliament advocate stronger autonomy rather than China’s goal of eventual unification.
At least 70% of Taiwanese oppose unification with China, according to opinion polls on the island. The Patriotic Alliance, the protesting pro-China group in Taipei, is “very extreme” compared with mainstream public opinion, said Lin Chong-pin, a retired strategic studies professor at Tamkang University in Taiwan.
In Hong Kong, Wong helped rally hundreds of thousands to protest in 2014 against Beijing influence in the financial center’s local government – a protest known as the Umbrella Movement. After Britain handed Hong Kong back to China in 1997, Beijing pledged to allow it a high degree of autonomy for 50 years, but pro-democracy groups believe Beijing has kept the island on too short a tether.
Hong Kong’s anti-Beijing faction has looked to Taiwan for inspiration and practical cues since the Umbrella Movement.
“We are hoping that whether in Hong Kong or Taiwan we can remain democratic, so to hold this kind of exchange is a natural thing,” New Power Party media liaison Chen Nai-chia said, describing the weekend forums. “It’s not that we were trying for some specific goal.”
The Taipei-based Patriot Assn., a citizen group that advocates Taiwan’s unification with China, organized the protest outside the forum where Wong was speaking, group executive Chang Hsiu-yeh said Monday.
The Taipei Times newspaper reported that a noted local anti-government protest leader said he has information that points to involvement by the Four Seas Gang, an international syndicate, or triad, made up largely of people with mainland China connections. But the Patriot Assn., said the gang was not involved.
“How could we even get in to hit people?” Chang said. “There was yellow tape on the right and yellow tape on the left. We were just shouting, and that’s all. Who are the gangsters? It’s the police.”
Historical records show that Taiwan and Hong Kong belong to China, Chang said.
As Wong’s delegation arrived Saturday, it ran into about 200 opponents at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chen said. Some were wearing masks. She said the protesters wanted the visitors out of Taiwan. For his protection, police escorted Wong to a vehicle that took him into Taipei, where the forums were scheduled, Chen said.
Some of the 300 protesters outside the forum venue engaged in shoving on Saturday afternoon, city police said in a statement. Officers ordered the protesters to leave and cleared the site in about an hour. About 20 activists gathered Sunday morning to protest again, the statement says. They were questioned and their case turned over to prosecutors.
Members of Taiwan’s minor China Unification Promotion Party were also protesting, according to the police statement. Party head Chang An-le, often nicknamed White Wolf, is a former gangster.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je was quoted saying Saturday he wanted police to “protect our guests.”
After Wong’s group flew back to Hong Kong on Sunday night, it was assailed by another group of people supporting China, an aide to Law said. The incident left Law’s clothes ripped, and Wong went to the hospital for a checkup, the aide said. He would not say who the party believes rallied the protests.
“To my surprise, they started pushing towards me even though there were a few airport security staff surrounding me,” Law said in a statement Monday. “Their actions quickly escalated when they tried to pull me out of the crowd, where my shirt was torn apart and my glasses fell off as a result. Some of them even poured some unknown stinking liquid and threw plastic bottles at me.
“I was immediately escorted by the airport security to the taxi station, but unfortunately I was attacked again at the staircase,” he said.
Wong is no stranger to clashes. He was convicted last year of unlawful assembly in Hong Kong and egged on his way to an earlier court hearing.
In October, he was detained on arrival in Thailand , where he was invited to speak at a university-sponsored event marking the anniversary of an attack by the Southeast Asian country’s forces against student protesters.
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BEIJING — China says it is tightening border controls in its northwestern Xinjiang region amid rising terrorism threats.
State media reported Tuesday that Xinjiang’s governor Shohrat Zakir made the pledge in a speech at the region’s main annual political meeting on Monday. Zakir said increased measures taken in the last year would be further strengthened.
Xinjiang has long been home to a simmering insurgency against Beijing’s rule being waged by extremists among the native Turkic-speaking Uighur (WEE-gur) ethnic group, who are mainly Muslim and culturally distinct from most Chinese.
Xinjiang shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan and four nations in the often volatile Central Asian region. Uighur extremists have also been reported to have joined the fighting in Syria and were blamed for a deadly attack on a Buddhist temple in Thailand. /rga
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